She may work with the top talents in design, but ELLE DECOR contributing editor Cynthia Frank takes a surprisingly relaxed approach to her own home in Southampton

Loggica

Loggica

When Cynthia Frank convinced her husband to buy a seven-bedroom house a block from the ocean in Southampton, New York, their children braced for the onslaught of 18th-century French furniture. "They refer to me as 'the mother who buys chairs that no one wants to sit in,'" Frank says. "A lot of our homes have been very formal—very behind the silk rope."

The loggia’s antique arm-chairs and bench are upholstered in Pierre Frey fabrics, the Lucite-and-metal cocktail table is vintage, and the flooring is marble.

Frank at home

Frank at home

With her white-blonde coif, couture outfits, and arms stacked with vintage French gold bangles, Frank could be mistaken for a lady who mostly lunches. When she was a young woman in the early 1960s, her parents certainly urged her to take that route. Instead, this indefatigable stylesetter has worked for more than five decades as a magazine editor—first as an assistant to the fabric and fur editor of Harper's Bazaar, then at such publications as Town & Country, House & Garden, and now ELLE DECOR, where she is a contributing editor at large. "She has the energy of a 25-year-old and a truly genius eye," says her daughter-in-law, the photographer and socialite Claiborne Swanson Frank, who frequently consults her mother-in-law for decorating advice.

Cynthia Frank at her Southampton, New York, home, which she decorated with the help of designers Timothy Haynes and Kevin Roberts. The sculpture is by Almond Zigmund, and the painting is by Russell Christoffersen.